Syracuse, N.Y. -- Every so often, those of us in the media give the athletes pretty good reasons to point their fingers our way and laugh. And on those occasions of our gaffes, we deserve every snicker.

Take, for instance, The Boston Globe, a terrific newspaper, sure, and one with an historically proud sports section. Wondrous as that journal is, however, it's not immune from periodic daftness.

And for Exhibit "A," there are these recently-published words:

". . . while the Yankees have always been built to endure controversy and the usual chaos that has been a staple of George Steinbrenner teams, the revelation of (Alex) Rodriguez's steroid use will likely unsettle a team that had been buoyed by an offseason in which Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett were signed to rebuild a sagging offense and an injury-plagued pitching staff."

The Associated Press/Kathy WillensAlex Rodriguez might also want to throw in a few words of gratitude about the good looks, the talent and the money, too. And hope, of course, that the Good Lord overlooks that bit of steroids business.

Yeah, right.

Listen, the New York Yankees are going to be as "unsettled" by A-Rod's cheating as an elephant would be by the landing on its rump of a moth.

Does anybody really think:

(1) That professional athletes -- especially those annually paid in the tens of millions of dollars as the majority of the Yankees are -- give a rat's keister what the guy in the next locker did days (never mind, years) earlier? And,

(2) That in the New York clubhouse, as in every big-league clubhouse, there aren't a fair number of cads who've dabbled in performance-enhancing drugs but haven't (yet) been caught?

Which inspires the even more intriguing question: Considering the above, does anybody really think that the Yankees, as a group, will dismiss their third baseman as more creep than colleague, more scalawag than star, more bum than Bomber?

Come on. The only thing, relative to Alex Rodriguez, that will "unsettle" the New York Yankees is if he were to start fielding like Chuck Knoblauch and/or hitting like Phil Linz. He's not being paid that $275 million to be Father O'Malley. He's being paid that $275 million to deliver by any means necessary . . . and with no questions asked.

Now, none of this means that the Yankees will view A-Rod as any less of a liar than he's already admitted to being. They aren't dopes, you know. In fact, upon review of both his domestic and professional lives, they -- like the rest of us -- would have to reach the inevitable conclusion that this American idol is to honesty what Ozzy Osbourne is to oratory.

But because baseball players value two-out gappers far more than they do truth-telling, Rodriguez -- should he continue to be a marvelous, if unclean, talent -- will forever be in the clear (and perhaps even the cream) with his teammates.

Today's doings down in Tampa, where so many of the Yankees plan to attend A-Rod's "confessional" of a press conference/infomercial as a show of support, will prove this beyond any reasonable doubt. And it will go a long way, too, to dispelling any notion that that club, with the $200-million payroll (or thereabouts), is in any way on the verge of being "unsettled."

After all, Alex Rodriguez merely cheated. And as nearly everybody in baseball will tell you -- including, according to PED history, more than a few Yankees through the years -- if you're not cheating . . . well, you're just not trying hard enough.

(Bud Poliquin's on-line commentaries are freshly written every weekday at syracuse.com. Additionally, his column and "To The Point" observations appear regularly in The Post-Standard. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com)